As others have observed in this thread, What is the deal with all these questions about spyware lately?, it seems we have had a rash of threads recently asking, in general, “WTF is happening to my computer? Home pages are hijacked, popups and porn populate my 'puter, etc.”
As many of us know by now, the most obvious cause of a whole pile of problems is spyware/malware/adware, whatever you wanna call it. And the stock recommended solutions are AdAware,Spybot, and Hijack This, all free.
There are also some prgs that list and allow deletion of BHOs (Browser Help Objects), a related problem, like BHO Demon.
Would a sticky on this topic be a good idea? If only we could get dopers to read it first, it might save the hamsters from having to power lot of redundant threads.
Mods – what do you think? Is a sticky in our future?
Here’s one more link to add to the cleanup tools list, CWshredder. Apparently, the CoolWave set of badwares is not well detected by AdAware or Spybot. I’ve tried to communicate with the Lavasoft crew for months on their forum about this, but have received no explanation.
If a sticky isn’t appropriate for this topic, I guess we’ll just have to educate posters to search before posting. What are the chances of that?
If the Admins/Mods wanted it, and really only if, 'cause they run the board, I’d say rather than doing a sticky thread each for every darned repeated question there ever was in GQ, that someone might like to try an FAQ sticky instead, constantly added to as the “new” repeat questions emerge (which they always will).
Would cut down on the stickys, for one thing.
Having said that – hey, yeah, Musicat, there’s been a heck of a lot of those kind of threads. Only thing to do, I suppose, is keep the anti-spyware links handy for the next time.
Yeah – I am not trying to push the sticky idea anymore, but this thread has served as a place to refer people to lists of useful links, so I’ll keep adding them if I run across any more.
And while we’re on the subject, anybody hear of some kind of malware that alters the date on already sent mail, sometimes back to 1969(!) and randomly pre-pends “Clear day” before the text? A friend just called me and described this situation on his computer. Haven’t found anything on the cause of this yet.
I would like to offer another resource worthy of addition to your list. MVPS.ORG offers many useful items, including how to articles, links to freeware, tips and tricks, and information on IE security issues. The freeware links include; AV programs, Startup monitors, Firewalls, DCOM disablers, and much more. There are links to free, on line, virus scanning for those with an immediate need and no AV program. The information they offer is current, and their links work! Best of all, everything is free.
Zig
I’m sorry I should have responded earlier. I’ve been meaning to put up a sticky in GQ on this topic, but just been extremely busy of late and haven’t gotten down to it.
If someone could post to this thread a well-written comprehensive post on spyware and how to get rid of it, I’ll copy/paste it to a sticky in GQ. You could include the links offered in this thread. Members can then add their own links and solutions to the sticky thread.
Thanks for your support, suggestions and patience through this difficult period. The staff greatly appreciates it.
Thanks, xash. I will try to compose just such a post later today unless someone beats me to it. I hope it will prove to be a useful subject to have at our fingertips. I already have referred non-Dopers to this thread when they have contacted me about problems in their computer.
Don’t forget SpywareBlaster, a free program that confugures IE so that over 1100 types of adware and spyware are prevented from ever installing themselves on your computer in the first place.
They monitor dozens of system security tools for update releases, then post them in this calendar with links to the relevant pages. You can sign up to be notified whenever there is an addtion to the update calendar.
PLEASE! For the love of Cecil! Can we have a sticky on this! In fact how about a whole new forum? Let’s call it the “Get Spybot & Adaware Forum”, and have a bot that posts the first reply to every post with “Get Spybot & Adaware!”
If I see just one more thread that starts “My computer is behaving funny” and is followed by a post that says “Get Spybot & Adaware” I may well faint. It’s like a perpetual time warp. Pretty soon 80% of all posts to GQ will consist of these two words.
Patience, Futile Gesture! I’m preparing a thread starter which I will email to xash for his comment before it becomes an official message and/or sticky. Sorry I haven’t gotten it done sooner, but it’ll be this week. I will incorporate all the links we frequently use and a brief explanation of the various malware types making the rounds. Then if we only get people to read it first!
